The action movie hero is venturing into the production and bottling of non-alcoholic drinks and water.

Steven Seagal, a martial arts master and Hollywood star, has established a limited liability company in Russia with his son Dominic, each holding a 50% stake. The new company, called "Five Elements," will focus on producing non-alcoholic drinks for children and bottling still water, with the senior Seagal serving as CEO.

Both men are registered as Russian citizens; Steven Seagal received his passport from President Vladimir Putin in person in 2016, while his father was a Jewish immigrant from Russia after the World War I.

The business news portal RBK, which first uncovered the actor and director's new venture, says that "Five Elements" was registered in Moscow on March 22, 2023, in a building on Matrosskaia Tishina (Mariners' Silence) Street, and is Seagal's second company in Russia. The first is called "Steven Seagal Group" and includes several business codes related to artistic and entertainment activities. He was also an associate in the company "Russian Fairs" in 2018, but withdrew due to lack of time for his new retail business.

Seagal receiving his Russian passport from Putin. Picture: Kremlin

Steven Seagal has been involved in other economic projects, too, but he also holds a public position. He is the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow for Russian-American humanitarian relations, and in 2021 he received a membership card for the "Just Russia - Patriots for Justice" party. In 2013, Seagal promoted pistols and machine guns produced by the Russian company ORSIS/PromtehTehnologjya, lobbying for its entry into the American weapons market.

Friendship with dictators

In 2022, the head of the occupation administration in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, announced that Steven Seagal had visited the Donbas region to make a documentary film about the war in Ukraine. On February 27, 2023, Putin decorated Seagal with the Order of Friendship.

Seagal has been previously spotted in the company of some autocratic leaders - Alexander Lukashenko (Belarus), Nicolas Maduro (Venezuela), Rodrigo Duterte (Philippines).

Some media sources speculate that Seagal has been recruited by the Ministry of Defense and the FSB to train soldiers in martial arts, especially aikido. The actor-master has not yet commented on the rumor.

It should be noted that there is an aikido club owned by Seagal in the center of Moscow.

Steven Seagal is also a citizen of the USA and Serbia. He is known for his action movies, in which he played roles as a savior of innocents or a vigilante, but also for numerous sexual harassment scandals. He is on his fourth marriage and has 7 children and 3 grandchildren.

Another actor enamored with Russia and Putin is the Frenchman Gerard Depardieu, who also holds a Russian passport. In 2022, Depardieu closed his last business in the Russian Federation - a film production center in Moscow, due to the lack of viable projects. The French actor's other businesses in Russia were abandoned in 2020.

Unlike Seagal, who remained a Buddhist after receiving Russian citizenship, Depardieu renounced Catholicism and converted to Orthodox Christianity.